A ‘Smiley Face’ triumph has left us all thinking…

Every now and again you see something so special and ground breaking that you want everyone you care about it to experience it too. With it’s humorous yet poignant script, it’s observation on growing up in current times and it’s fresh, relevant and brave message ‘Smiley Face’ delivered this to its audiences.
The play, written by Pipeline Theatre playwright, Jon Welch, in collaboration with our students is a dystopian story, set in 3 very different schools in the not too distant future. In a world where at age 11, a student’s adult life has already been decided. Selected boys attend ‘Goldman Sachs’ destined for a career as a stockbroker or banker; cream of the crop in girls attend ‘L’Oreal’ where they learn to blog beauty secrets, take lessons in how to laugh at men's jokes and take medication to stay thin while they live and die by their social media status. Meanwhile, at the ‘Dream Academy’ the rejects never see the light of day; living in a virtual world doing the jobs no one else wants to do. No child has contact with their family, no one has a choice about their future, so what happens if a twin brother feels like there is something missing in his life that he simply must find and somebody works out how to hack the whole system?
Over 100 students were involved in the production as writers, actors, musicians, and technical support and they gave us an unforgettable school play which the Head was so impressed by that he requested an extra performance for all of Year 9 on the last day of term.

Here are some of the comments from our school Facebook page which we were so delighted to receive.‘One of the best school plays I’ve ever seen-and I’ve seen a few! Felt quite emotional by the end. Fantastic!’‘Brilliant play and excellent acting. Bang on topic too. Thank goodness Richard Lander make space for the more creative young people within the school.'‘Excellent play - dark, sad, thought provoking ,clever and so much work. You should all be proud ‘'Really thought provoking!''Amazing cast and truly creative and topical play! Well done!!!’‘Great play , well done , very thought provoking involving so many current issues . Great acting so much talent . Everyone should see this ! Congratulations everyone involved.'